A burglar stole $3,000 in cash and other items last month from a three-bedroom house rented by Ohio State linebacker A.J. Hawk and center Nick Mangold and a roommate.

Hawk and Mangold, both 21, and Thomas Jonathan, 22, reported that someone burglarized their campus-area house on Norwich Avenue between 6 p.m. Nov. 22 and 8 p.m. Nov. 23.

Hawk filed a report with Columbus police on Nov. 28. Besides the cash, two laptop computers worth $3,500; DVD movies worth $1,425; video games worth $750 and a $500 Gucci watch were stolen, according to a police report.

Lt. Brent Mull, a spokesman for the Police Division, said yesterday that the burglary was under investigation. Authorities have no suspects, he added.

A burglary involving football players is handled like any other break-in, Mull said. "We have numerous burglaries, and they are investigated in order," he said. "We can’t jump this one ahead of any other."

The cash reportedly was stolen from Hawk’s room. Asked if the amount raised any questions from the athletics department, spokesman Steve Snapp said "Not that I’m aware of."

Hawk has a reputation among his teammates of being frugal with his spending, and just the week before he’d received his latest scholarship check of about $900 to cover living expenses, Snapp said.

Hawk, who early yesterday began a trip to several different postseason awards ceremonies, could not be reached for comment.

I'm sure most have read or heard about this already. This makes the 2nd theft these guys have encountered in only a few months. Why keep 3K around then? Mangold's Dad responds on Bucknuts here:

Hawk careful to keep eye on his money He planned to take $3,000 that was stolen to bank Thursday, December 08, 2005Tim May THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

As news of the Thanksgivingweek burglary from the off-campus rental house of Ohio State football players A.J. Hawk and Nick Mangold made the rounds this week, it wasn’t the loss of video-game consoles, laptop computers or DVDs that caught the eye.

It was $3,000 cash, the amount that was in a safe taken from Hawk’s room that piqued interest. But the amount, and the fact it was in his room, shouldn’t be surprising, his father Keith Hawk said, if you know A.J.

"We’ve always called him ‘Papa’ after his great grandfather who did not trust banks when we’ve discussed his habits of squirreling away his money," Keith Hawk said yesterday.

He was accompanying his son, a senior All-American linebacker, on a tour of postseason award ceremonies that started last night in Houston, where he won the Lombardi Award.

As far as losing the cash, "I was in the process of getting ready to take that to the bank," A.J. Hawk said. "I learned not to keep that kind of money around the house any more. But I’ve always been that way. Plus I learned not to trust people so much."

Keith Hawk said his son always has been "tight as a drum. He spends no money. He saves it all. For example, he got over $1,500 from high-school graduation gifts and never spent a nickel of it."

His father promised him and his older brother Ryan, who played quarterback at Ohio University, that if they went to school on scholarships he would pay for their meals, thus freeing cash from their scholarship checks for their personal use. A.J. gets a check of $900 each month from Ohio State for living expenses, which is meant to cover room and board.

"In A.J.’s case, that allows him to save up to $450 a month," Keith Hawk said.

Which circles back to Keith Hawk’s opening line about why they call A.J. "Papa." He had a small safe in his bedroom, but the thieves took it, perhaps not knowing what was in it.

After A.J. Hawk and Mangold, both from Centerville, returned from the Thanksgiving break and discovered they and their roommate, Jonathan Thomas, had been robbed, "I told A.J. to call the police," Keith Hawk said.

The point, Keith Hawk said, was the cash did not represent ill-gotten gains by his son, a high-profile football player. He had nothing to hide, though he probably now will try to stash his cash in other ways.

"We told him that having a safe in his house did not protect his cash," Keith Hawk said. "We reminded him that robbers could carry his safe away, which they ultimately did. He’s learned that lesson the hard way."